10 Things on Her Mind
by Dystopic Entropy
Summary: If Ms. Perky acted like an actual school counselor instead of just being comic relief...what would have happened after the second time that Kat was sent to her office? Originally written as an assignment for CNDV 5311 Individual Counseling Theories.


Ms. Perky: "Hello, Kat. What brings you in today?"

Kat: "Mr. Morgan sent me out of class again. This is the second time this month. It's completely unfair! This time I didn't even do anything!"

Ms. Perky: "You are upset by Mr. Morgan's reaction to you."

Kat "I wasn't even arguing with him! I actually want to do the assignment on Sonnet 141."

Ms. Perky: "You sound as if there is a lot on your mind. Even though you're not in the classroom with Mr. Morgan anymore, you still look tense."

Kat: "I feel like I need to be ready to push people away."

Ms. Perky: "Why is that?"

Kat: "I don't like doing things because of what people expect. I want to do things because they're what I feel like doing. But my dad and my sister and all these unwashed imbecilic miscreants at school and even Mr. Morgan expect Ms. Perky to act different. The only person who doesn't care is Patrick."

Ms. Perky: "You mentioned that you feel a need to push people away because of their expectations about you, and you mentioned your father and sister. Do you feel a need to push them away as well?"

Kat: "I already know how Bianca feels about me. I don't feel like I have to change for her. I just feel like I need to…protect her."

Ms. Perky: "You feel the need to protect her because you're her big sister."

Kat: "It's not because she's younger than me. It's because of that jerk she's seeing, Joey. He doesn't care about her, and she's just going to end up being another one of his conquests. He just wants to get in her pants. She doesn't realize that guys like him are only after her for that."

Ms. Perky: "But you do."

Kat: "I know that's all he's after, because that's all he was after with Ms. Perky. He dumped me when I told him I didn't want to do it anymore."

Ms. Perky: "I see. And you haven't talked to Bianca about your history with Joey."

Kat: "I've never talked to anyone about it, but it's the reason I stopped doing things because of what people expected."

Ms. Perky: "It sounds like you defy expectations as a way to safeguard yourself from getting hurt in that way again."

Kat: "I do now, but I don't think Bianca knows how to look past how popular Joey is. I guess I should talk to her about it. I just hope she'll listen, so she doesn't have to learn the hard way, like I did."

Ms. Perky: "You care about your sister a great deal. You seem to have a good idea of how you'd like your sister to be able to learn from your previous experiences."

Kat: "I hope she can learn to take care of herself when I go to Sarah Lawrence…if my dad even lets me. He wants me to go to U-W and be a Husky like him. I guess he still wants to protect me the way I want to protect Bianca."

Ms. Perky: "You mentioned your father earlier. Let's talk about him for a little bit. You wish that he would accept that you can take care of yourself and find your own path."

Kat: "That's all I want from everybody. I have to prove that I can take care of myself. I guess doing stuff like slamming into Joey's car the other day doesn't help my dad to stop worrying about me. Dad thought I did it because I was mad about Sarah Lawrence."

Ms. Perky: "How do you think that will affect your father's confidence in you?"

Kat: "I guess I have to prove that I'm capable by not letting my emotions get the better of me."

Ms. Perky: "That's a very good approach to take in any situation. How do you think can you apply this idea in the conflicts you're experiencing with other people, like Mr. Morgan?"

Kat: "I can do a good job on the Sonnet 141 assignment. And I guess I can do it about hating some other than his class."

Ms. Perky: "It sounds as if you can use the chance to think deeply about your emotions in order to control your responses to them. This assignment is an opportunity for you to think through your emotions and put them into words."

Kat: "I suppose so. Thanks. I guess I know how I can take care of things now."


End file.
